All Dressed Bloomin'Baked Potatoes

Make no mistake about it, the potato is my favourite vegetable.  It has been ever so.  Not sure why.  I just know I could live without chocolate if I had to, but I cannot go very long without a potato!  No carb only works for me for a short time.  I always end up caving in to the humble potato.

I saw this recipe for Bloomin' Baked Potatoes on a food blog called The Gunny Sack the other day and they looked pretty good.  Not low fat, of course, but meh . . .  sometimes you just have to live, right?

 

 I was pretty keen to try it out, but looking at it, I thought I could improve on it somewhat.  The method of cutting the potato is somewhat similar, but that is all . . .

 

Because of the somewhat high calorie content, I thought that 1/2 a baking potato was a large enough serving for anyone, and so I chose to cut each baked potato in half crosswise.  This also gives a lot more surface to gild and crisp up in the oven. 

 

It also gets cross cut, or petal-cut (see the recipe or the original recipe on the other blog) and those kind of fan out when baking, hence bloomin' potato.

Thinking about all those cuts I was reminded of another recipe that make for potato wedges.  In that one you brush the potatoes with a spicy and flavourful butter glaze while they are baking.  I felt that this would give the potatoes a lot more flavour than just olive oil . . .  which is probably good, but I was looking for more.

And so I brushed them with some of that butter glaze from my original recipe which runs down into the cuts while they are baking and helps to crisp up and create some lovely golden flavourful edges.

Once they are all golden and crisp edged, I removed them from the oven and sprinkled on some old cheddar and crisp bacon which I had crumbled.  I returned them to the oven for a minute or so just to melt the cheese.

 

Finally I served them with a dollop of sour cream on top and a sprinkling of minced spring onions.  Oh boy  . . .  these were really, REALLY good! 

*All Dressed Bloomin' Baked Potatoes*

Serves 4 

Printable Recipe 

 

I saw a few recipes for these bloomin potatoes that looked really good.  I thought I could improve on them by combining them with a recipe I have been making for years for potato wedges.  The end result was quite simply fabulous. 

For the Potatoes:
4 TBS butter, melted
60g tomato ketchup (1/4 cup)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshy ground black pepper
2 large baking potatoes,unpeeled 

You will also need:

4 TBS grated strong cheddar cheese

2 slices streaky bacon, fried crisp and then crumbled

4 TBS sour cream

1 spring onion, trimmed and finely chopped

 
Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.  Line a baking tray with some aluminium foil.  Whisk together the butter, ketchup, mustard, paprika, salt and black pepper.  Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise.  Using a amall and very sharp flexible paring knife, cut rings into the cut side of the potatoes, all the way around and leaving 1/3 inch in between each ring. You will probably only get 3, maybe four depending on the size of your potatoes.  Flip the potatoes over and make cuts all the way around the edges of the potatoes, again about 1/3 inch apart and leaving the centres intact. 

Place cut side up into a baking dish.  Spread with half of the butter mixture.  Cover with foil and bake in the heated oven for 15 minutes.  Uncover and spread with the remaining half of the butter mixture and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, basting them with the drippings every five minutes until fork tender and crisp edged.  Sprinkle with the cheese and bacon bits and return to the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.  Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped spring onion.

I really hope you will give these a go.  Fabulous served with BBQ meats, chicken and fish, and with a salad on the side.  Scrumptious doesn't begin to describe them! Bon Appetit!